In the Bookshelves
by petitecanard
Summary: Sirius finds her in the bookshelves. It doesn't mean much at the time. (one-shot)


**In the Bookshelves**

* * *

Hogwarts, 1978

Sirius Black, armed with blank pages that he hoped to fill in the next few hours, meandered through the towering bookshelves of the Hogwarts library. Remus had told him there was a useful book for his Potions essay near the Restricted Section, but Sirius worried Remus had set him up to get lost, perhaps as revenge for Sirius making all of Remus's quill ink neon green last week.

Sirius glanced mournfully at the Restricted Section, but he didn't have a note from Madame Pince to go down that aisle, and he was painfully aware of what the books did to interlopers. His ears didn't need to be assaulted by screaming books right now.

A loud thump and muffled exclamation made Sirius backtrack and stare at the long aisle lined with forbidden texts. Now this was interesting.

"If I knew mysterious women appeared in the library I would come here more often."

"Ugh." The woman's lush and curly hair encircled her head like a halo as she glared balefully at Sirius from the ground. "I didn't appear. I've been here with Harry for hours, studying. This book must have a strong protection charm that made me . . ." She frowned and seemed to realize her prone position on the floor. "Maybe I fainted. But I don't feel like I fainted."

Sirius ambled over to her and held out his hand. "Do you think if I tell Slughorn the library makes gorgeous people faint I can skive off writing this essay?"

The woman grasped his hand and pulled herself up. She was wearing a Queen t-shirt, which surprised Sirius. It was a great band, but Slytherins often targeted people who wore obviously Muggle clothing. But then, this woman looked a few years older than a Hogwarts student.

"Thanks," she said, picking up a nondescript leather book from the floor. She considered Sirius. "Slughorn retired a few years ago."

"Nah," Sirius said. "He's still here making my life miserable because I crashed his Slug Club party a few years back."

The woman laughed. "He can hold a grudge, can't he?"

Sirius grimaced. "He really can. I think he's just upset that my brilliance escaped Slytherin."

The woman rolled her eyes. "Ha, I'm sure," she held up the book, "I should go tell Minerva that her books are wonky."

Sirius gestured at his sheath of papers. "And I should go half-arse this essay."

"Best of luck."

"What's your name?" Sirius asked.

"I'm Hermione . . . Granger." Hermione introduced herself with a moment of hesitancy, as if she expected a reaction to her name.

"It's nice to meet you, I'm Sirius Black."

Hermione's entire demeanor shifted. "That's not funny," She snapped, expression suddenly dark. Sirius was taken aback. What had he ever done to her?

"Yeah, it's completely _serious_."

"Of all disrespectful things to do," Hermione snarled, stomping out of the Restricted Section. Essay forgotten, Sirius followed her.

"Look, I don't know what you're very weird problem with my name is-"

"I have a problem with you," Hermione shot back.

"- but McGonogall's office is the other way."

Hermione quickly turned another corner. "I know where Minerva's office is," she snapped.

"Clearly not!"

"Why are you following me?"

"You're heading in the wrong direction! I'm trying to help."

Hermione growled and kept striding angrily through the maze of Hogwart's corridors until she got to the Headmaster's Study.

"This is really not McGonogall's office," Sirius warned.

"Of course it is." Hermione glared at him while rapping smartly on the wooden door, ignoring the protestations of the perpetually annoyed gargoyle.

Seconds later Dumbledore opened the door and peered at them from behind his half-moon spectacles. Hermione visibly paled, her posture stiffening even further.

"Hello, Mr. Black," Dumbledore greeted. "May I inquire who your guest is?"

"Oh," Hermione stuttered, poise gone. She stared back at Sirius with wide brown eyes. "Oh." She looked back at Dumbledore and held up her book. "Oh. There's a problem with one of your library books, Sir." She glanced again at Sirius. "Could we discuss this in your study, in private? Sirius was just leaving."

"No, I wasn't leaving," Sirius protested, intrigued by whatever the hell was going on with Hermione Granger.

"Of course, come right in," Dumbledore invited. Hermione glanced again at Sirius and stepped through the door, which was promptly shut in Sirius's face.

* * *

Hogwarts, 1978

Sirius didn't see Hermione again until a few weeks, by which time he had nearly forgotten that he had stumbled across a stranger in the library. But now he was in Dumbledore's study because Dumbledore was talking to the group of Seventh Years who had agreed to join the Order of the Phoenix.

In the midst of Dumbledore's galvanizing speech, Hermione stumbled out of the Floo. Without noticing the wide-eyed group, she slammed a large pile of papers onto Dumbledore's already cluttered desk.

"This is all the information I have access to, and it's not enough. I need to go to the Department of Mysteries."

"Hi, again," Sirius chirped before Dumbledore had the chance to do more than adjust his glasses. Hermione flipped around to see the assorted group of a dozen Seventh Years. Her gaze jumped from person to person and then landed on Dumbledore. "I'll go," she declared.

"No, Miss Granger, please stay. These upstanding students have decided to become members of the Order. Are you still adamant that you won't join us?"

"Congratulations, or good luck, or whatever to you all," Hermione said to the group. "But, Sir, you can't peer pressure me into your little group. You know it's too dangerous for me to be involved, and I have my research to do."

Sirius spied Lily frown angrily. She was clearly upset at the disrespect to her favorite professor.

"We disagree, in respect to your hypothesis, Miss Granger. Since you can't get home, what is the harm in helping us?" Dumbledore argued. Sirius felt excluded from their conversation. What hypothesis?

"I'm not joining the Order. I'm going home." Hermione snapped.

"What problem do you have with fighting against You-Know-Who?" James spat. "You're either against him, or for him."

Hermione leveled her strong gaze at James. "And I am very much against Voldemort," Hermione ignored how everyone except Dumbledore flinched at her use of the name, "I just have other priorities."

Lily scoffed, green eyes blazing. "That's what people say when they don't care enough about muggleborns to actually risk their lives."

James nodded emphatically, muttering "coward," under his breath.

"Use your anger towards something more useful than yelling at me," Hermione said flatly, her disdain oddly weary. "Professor Dumbledore, I'm going to leave now."

"Miss Granger, please come to the meetings, if only so we can communicate with you. Or so you can help Alastor Moody train the members."

Hermione surveyed the group, looking troubled. "No."

She casually took some of Dumbledore's Floo powder and exited.

"Who was that, Professor?" Lily asked.

"An ex-student of mine, apparently," Dumbledore mused. "She's landed in a spot of trouble."

* * *

Hogwarts, 1978

This time, it took longer for Sirius to forget about Hermione Granger, but his life was still too full for him to spend time thinking about her.

Until she appeared in another unlikely spot.

The Great Hall.

"What're you doing?" Sirius mumbled, mouth full of roast chicken as Hermione sat down across from him and James.

"You two know a lot about Hogwarts, don't you?"

"More than anyone else," James boasted, though he eyed Hermione warily. Sirius also wondered why Hermione, who was not a Hogwarts student, had sought out him and James.

"Are there any weird magical spots in the library you know of?"

Sirius swallowed down his food. "I don't think Madam Pince would allow that."

"So I should ask Madam Pince?"

"Merlin, no," Sirius said. "James and I will go investigate. Pince chomps off people's noses."

Next to Sirius, James nodded solemnly. "Sirius and I will leave your nose intact."

"Er, thanks," Hermione said.

Hermione was a force of nature once she got to the library. She stalked through the bookshelves, wand out and muttering spells under her breath as Sirius and James followed her.

"I'm looking for magical disturbances," Hermione said, pausing in her wand-waving. "They're fairly common at Hogwarts because of the ambient magic and regular magical accidents."

"Do magical disturbances cause anything?"

"Usually they're harmless," Hermione said, pulling a hand through her unbelievably curly brown hair. "I've been studying them, actually, because there was recently a lot of magical disturbances at Hogwarts and I want to know how that could affect the castle."

"There is that corner of the library where the books act weird," James said.

Hermione's eyes lit up. "Really? Could you show me?"

"Near the Restricted Section?" Sirius asked, thinking of the corner where he had found Hermione unconscious.

"No, opposite corner."

James showed Sirius and Hermione to the corner, which looked perfectly innocuous.

"What's wrong with it?" Hermione asked. "Do magical objects act oddly in this area?"

"Uh," James adjusted his glasses slightly, "books sometimes float themselves out of bookshelves. And sometimes books float into the bookshelf. Lily was studying here and her Charms textbook just ended up in the bookshelf magically. She complained about it for awhile," James looked directly at Hermione. "She doesn't like you much. Lily, that is. She thought you were rude to Dumbledore."

"I _was_ rude to Dumbledore," Hermione said.

"Lily also doesn't like that you wouldn't join the Order," James pressed.

Hermione sighed, her eyes fluttering shut for a moment. "I would if I could, James. This war you're fighting, it sucks. It's going to be awful. But it's worth fighting, okay? Remember that."

"This is why I fucking hate the library," Sirius muttered. "There are never any _fun _conversations."

This comment made Hermione laugh. "I think this corner is good for my research, thank you Sirius and James. You two probably have better things to do."

"We do, actually. We were going to go flying," Sirius said.

"You should. Enjoy the rest of your time here at Hogwarts," Hermione encouraged, a small smile gracing her pretty features.

"You don't need to tell me twice," James readily agreed. "Bye, Hermione."

"Bye."

* * *

The Hogs Head, 1978

Sirius thought a little bit about Hermione after that. Lily reported that she had seen Hermione muttering under her breath and writing notes in the library, but Sirius didn't see her again.

He was disappointed when she wasn't at the first Order Meeting. Hermione seemed smart and capable, a good addition to the fledgling Order of the Phoenix.

"Professor, is Hermione not joining?" Sirius asked, as he and James left the meeting.

"Miss Granger has returned home, Mr. Black. I don't think we'll be seeing her for awhile," Dumbledore mused.

"Too bad. I liked her."

* * *

The Shrieking Shack, 1994

Sirius forgot about Hermione Granger. Life after Hogwarts was overwhelming. He had no reason to remember her. War came. James and Lily married and were murdered. Voldemort died. Sirius disintegrated in Azkaban.

Until an evening in the Shrieking Shack with the unlikeliest of people: Remus Lupin, Harry Potter, a Weasley boy, and a girl with sharp eyes and outrageous hair who the boys kept calling _Hermione._

Hermione Granger, who knew Remus was a werewolf, was best friends with Harry, and later used a Time-Turner and a Hippogriff to help Sirius escape the Dementors' Kiss.

"Hermione Granger isn't a common name is it?" Sirius asked, just before she and Harry were to slip off of Buckbeak and back into Hogwarts.

"No. I've never met another Hermione," she said.

"Me neither," Sirius said slowly, staring at her and trying to comprehend Hermione's existence, the existence of the whole evening.

"Are you quite alright?" Hermione asked.

"Fine. Fine," Sirius muttered.

* * *

Grimmauld Place, 1996

Two years later, in Grimmauld Place, Sirius finally mentioned Hermione to Remus.

"Do you remember when we met with Dumbledore that first time, in his office, to talk about the Order?" Sirius asked, pouring both him and Remus a much needed glass of Firewhiskey.

"And Hermione Granger was there? I remember," Remus said, gratefully accepting the glass and taking a long drink. "Bloody hell, I though I was going insane when she was in my Defense class."

"So, she time-traveled?" Sirius guessed, thinking of the gleaming Time-Turner that had hung around Hermione's neck when she and Harry had saved him.

"Must have."

"It was probably accidental," Sirius said. "She never seemed that happy to be there."

"If only we'd known she was from the future. Then we could have asked her if we won."

Forgotten memories flitted through Sirius's mind. He rifled through them, trying to pick up on lost signs and clues. "I think," he said slowly, "I think we do win. Or else I think she would have helped the Order when she was there. And she said something to me and James. She said, Merlin what did she say? 'That this war was awful, but it was one worth fighting.' So we must win, for it to be worth fighting."

"I bloody hope so, Sirius."

Sirius clinked glasses with Remus. "Here's to winning the war."

"To winning the war." Remus tipped back his drink, finishing it.

* * *

**AN: This is a one-shot so that's it. I'm not sure what this little story is, but I had fun writing it!**


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